Coronado Bible Church

We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5

Our thought lives are so important … that they aren’t supposed to be our own. The verse from Paul includes a chain of command. First, we are to master our thoughts … instead of being mastered by them. But we don’t take our thoughts captive to do our bidding. This isn’t the power of positive thinking. We’re simply taking prisoners for our Commander. Every thought is to be captured and examined against the standard of Christ and then subjugated to that standard. It is not gentle process, but a ruthless and radical one. Paul used the language of battle. The first part of the verse reads … “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” … we take captive every thought and make obedient to Christ.

From 2001 to 2006 the U.S. Army used the recruiting slogan … “An Army of One.” It was eventually replaced because it appeared to devalue teamwork … but there was a positive idea behind the motto. The byline of some posters read, “Smart, Strong and Prepared.” Thoroughly trained and well-equipped soldiers know their part in the conflict. Each man is an army within the army. Each must to go in well versed in the goals and objectives of central command.

The battlefield of the mind is a dangerous, potentially deadly conflict. Unexamined thought patterns lead to retreat, desertion and collateral damage. Enemy thoughts allowed into secure areas wreak havoc in our lives. The reason so many Christians fall prey to the devil is simple … they don’t know the objective and goals of their Commander. The only way we can realistically capture and subdue every thought to Christ … is if we know Christ’s will for our lives. This doesn’t happen magically or accidentally. Christ’s first battle plan, given to His closest lieutenants was, “go and make disciples of all nations, … teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20 They carried out His orders so diligently, that 2000 years later we have Jesus’ commands in a neatly bound field manual. You can use it to renew your mind … or you can be conformed to the pattern of the world dominated by the enemy of our souls. Romans 12:2

In July of 2007, I got to do something my father had dreamed and talked about his entire life; I attended AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin; one of the world’s premier airshows. The show boasted an unimaginable range of experimental, acrobatic and military aircraft. Many rare … and a few classified.

Sue and I had just finished a ride in an Bell H-13 helicopter just like the ones used in the T.V. series M.A.S.H. We were walking back toward the main strip where the flight displays were being staged. There above the crowds, we spotted a thin black line hanging at a 45-degree angle in the azure summer sky. The line didn’t seem to be moving but it was quickly lengthening. We were at a total loss as to what we were seeing. Suddenly a roar broke like thunder and the line blossomed into a gigantic jagged boomerang shape, banking sharply up into the heavens. The enormous B2 Stealth Bomber heading directly at us had almost been invisible until it turned. The aircraft was flying so fast that we didn’t hear it coming. Even sophisticated radar installations would have difficulty detecting it due to its ingenious shape and classified surface coatings. In other words, it would be on you with its payload before you knew it was coming.

How unlike prayer. We’re constantly telling each other, “I’m prayer for you” but we’re not. It’s not a lie … it’s good intentions combined with a busy life and a bad memory. Prayer unintentionally becomes show and noise with no payload. If you’ve ever promised prayer without delivering, I have a couple of suggestions.

First, if you hear of a grief or a need from a friend, ask if you can pray for them right then. I’ve never had anyone turn me down … even unbelievers. Don’t worry about elegance or instructing them, simply and honestly pray for their need. They will feel loved and you will be much more likely to remember to pray for them later.

Second, do some stealth praying. What would happen if we all picked a couple of people at church and in the community and prayed for them without broadcasting it? What if we established the pattern first, got it into our schedules and when we saw a need for encouragement, let them know? Here are some prayers from the Bible that you could begin to pray for others: John 17:17; 3 John 1:2; Ephesians 1:17-19; Ephesians 3:16-19

The warbling notes of its song make me think of home. It sounds like a North American Robin … except this bird rolls it’s “rrrrs.” It must be Panamanian. In the past weeks its song has been constant and repetitive; at five in the morning, at Noon, at dusk … close at hand and far away. Trill answering trill.

The other constant has been its nest building. On one beam of our veranda, a little brown bird is knitting together its casita of twigs and grass. Because the house we’re staying in is on the market, the gardener has knocked the nest down repeatedly. He barely has the mess swept up and the bird is back with another beak full of materials. The feathered builder is relentless and impossible to dissuade.

We are not the first to have our home become a nesting place. The temple in Jerusalem was evidently very popular. According to Psalm 84, “Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.” It’s a mundane view of the temple that I hadn’t considered. The mighty ornamental building … with sparrows and swallows tucking their nests in around its massive stone and atop the bronze columns. I wonder if there was a division of junior Levites tasked with the endless job of nest removal.

You might be surprised to learn that the Psalmist mentions the nesting birds with a tinge of envy. In the time he was writing, to be at the temple was to be nearer the presence of God. He longed, like those little birds, to be always in the house of the Lord. He began his song, “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” He could think of nothing better than being close to his God … “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”

The shade was deep, the breeze was cool and I was safe … or so I thought. I don’t have much experience with palapa’s on the beach and it shows … literally. I have a picture of my sunburn, but I thought you’d enjoy the beach picture more.

I am fair skinned and have ducked the sun most of my life. My saying has always been, “I have three colors; red, white and … peel.” I know that UV is invisible and harmful in large doses. I know that you can get a sunburn on an overcast day. But I was in serious shade cast by a totally opaque object. How could I get such a serious sunburn? I had not accounted for the power of reflected light. After a little web research, I now know that sand reflects 15% of the sun’s UV radiation and evidently at multiple angles.

What about the power of reflected … love? 1 John 4:19 says, We love because He first loved us. There are myriad meanings for love in our society, but all that is truly love … is reflected love. A little earlier in the same chapter, John wrote, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. When we love selflessly, sacrificially we are redistributing the love that God has shown into our lives. We cannot create that love, but we can reflect it.

In 2005, Spain, using Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology accounted for half of the potential electricity produced in the world. Its accomplished through thousands of mirrors reflecting the sun’s energy to a focused point, usually superheating and vaporizing liquids to run steam turbines. The power of reflected light grows as it is combined from multiple sources. Again … what about the power of reflected love? 1 John 4:12 gives us the answer, No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. Don’t underestimate the power of reflected love or your capacity to be useful in what God is doing in this world.

Joseph Sterner III was pronounced dead four times; twice as a POW in the Pacific Theater during WW 2, once in his early sixties … and once for real. Despite those two initial reports, Sterner survived the war, returned home, married and raised five children. Stresses associated with his war experience took their toll and Joseph separated from his family. Then in 1986, his truck was found abandoned in Pittsburgh and he was presumed murdered. After an extensive search and investigation, Sterner was declared legally dead.

Ten years later, the 72 year-old Sterner contacted the family lawyer looking for his vital records so that he could get medical benefits from the Veteran’s Administration. It was the same lawyer who had filed the death petition on behalf of his family.

Jesus Christ, was not presumed dead, He was dead.  Then … there He was alive again! Talking, eating drinking and teaching His baffled, befuddled, dumbstruck disciples. One modern skeptic claimed Jesus only swooned on the cross, but later revived in the coolness of the tomb. I wonder if that cynic considered the report from John 19:39 that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped Jesus’ body in “a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.” I don’t think being wrapped in 34 kg of spices would aid in reviving someone who was comatose!